That last man standing, now stepping back, has a plan and it is worth listening to that vision and pulling our resources behind him.
As Auldheid stated to The Celtic Star in recent correspondence:
“I think Res12 has done a lot already – Traverso letter – new club, exposed 5WA, showed UEFA not involved in 5WA, explained UEFA 10 year coefficient table (both thanks to Phil McG placing my questions), given our support reasons to refute the same club Craigy White, but I’d love to see some businessmen of integrity step up to the plate on the Membership Service.”
We covered that very membership service in a previous article and in truth, should we all be willing to step up to the mark, this very service would not only be a fitting legacy to Auldheid himself, it would be the strength of the Celtic support in numbers we’ve all thought needed but until now never thought possible.
‘No sort of duplicity can long flourish without the help of vocal falsehoods’, – George Eliot.
The Celtic support themselves needs to consider that very quote. It’s never been about Rangers, theRangers,, Newco, or whatever you wish to call them. This has always been about the governing bodies, their complicity in the Old Firm model, the money, the easy sell over the sporting integrity of Scottish football and our own club’s willingness to play its part.
Those governing bodies failed, they did so, possibly deliberately, and it required calling out. Auldheid and those who took on that battle alongside him called it out, found the evidence, and despite encouragement from those within our own, were left to twist in the wind.
To now assume the position of being bored, tired or indifferent to all of this this is to embolden those who allowed it all to happen, denied Celtic their dues, and accepted Scottish football needed the ‘ugly sisters’ to prevail. It did not and it does not, it needs a fair system, nothing more and nothing less.
Scottish football needed honesty and transparency, not an ‘Old firm’ at all costs. To be a clean enterprise it needed to follow the rules of fair play. And when it didn’t, it undermined the Corinthian spirit of Association Football and fair play for all, never mind anything due to Celtic.
And since then, it has seen the Zombie rise from the dead and somehow become all the more powerful and all the more entitled. And those governing bodies, having created Frankenstein’s Monster have now lost all semblance of control. They can’t and won’t reform themselves, theRangers won’t do it and the five-way agreement of which Celtic have knowledge, won’t allow it either.
And so Celtic need to defend our corner, but cannot be hamstrung as they are. They must first admit to it, and subsequently do something about this rigged game we all are now a part of, or duplicity reigns.
“When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.”― Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers
Now is the time for the Celtic support to pull together and make a Membership scheme a reality. Now is the time for a clean broom to sweep through Celtic, admit the errors of our ways and under a new CEO, not one without his own contribution to this almighty mess we find ourselves in, step up and find a way to shed ourselves of the shackles we tied ourselves with.
However, while we wait for what is likely impossible the Celtic support themselves can get ourselves prepared.
To get started we need all of you and all your skills. We need that figurehead, or more than one. We need people with a public persona, not connected to the board and trusted by the support. This is exactly the kind of proposition that is ideally suited to David Low’s skillset and the former Chairperson on The Celtic Trust may well be interested in this one, judging by his earlier comments when the matter was briefly discussed on social media recently.
But it also needs the skills and solidarity of every Celtic supporter to join such a Membership service, alongside people who could add weight and may even have the deep pockets required to help get such a scheme get off the ground and the business contacts to make something that seems such a large task become far simpler than it appears.
Such a membership service brings everyone together. It can include the Celtic Trust, the North Curve, Celtic Shared and other supporters’ associations, but it also includes fans who up to now haven’t felt any of that suits them.
It brings strength in numbers, skills and expertise in abundance and it creates a means to raise funds on a regular monthly basis, from as little as £5 a month, or more if you could commit to It and less or zero if unwaged. And it brings the support together in a way, which could, if done correctly, challenge the Celtic Board to behave more professionally, be more democratic, and to in turn challenge themselves.
For nigh on nine years Auldheid and for most of that time his fellow requisitioners fought the corner of the Celtic support and indeed that of Scottish football. Now we need one of two things or both. Either Michael Nicholson rights the wrongs, or the Celtic support pull together, create the membership service Auldheid envisages, pull our resources and become the challenge our rigged game in Scotland requires. It would not only be a fitting tribute; it is now a necessity.
Niall J
PS Thank you Auldheid.
